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TOPIC 5

RENAISSANCE

Lecture 9. Renaissance

1. Anthropocentrism.
2. Heliocentric system. Pantheism.

Beginning to study the philosophy of Renaissance students should
note that this is a transitional mental age which has a syncretic character.
Its main feature-humanism reveals new views of a human being, his

place in the Universe, and medieval teocentrism is replaced by
anthropocentrism. Philosophy of nature was represented in philosophical
treatises and researches made by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Telezio

Bernardino (1509-1588), including a large discovery of the time - the
teachings about the world heliocentric system belonging to Nicholas
Copernicus (1473-1543). Rather interesting features has a Catholic
Church Cardinal Nicholas Kuzanskyi, (1410-1464) a personality who

combines features of the scholastic philosophy and the new
philosophical approaches. The traditional idea of God is represented in

two directions: in the form of panteism that aquires the meaning of
naturalism, materialism, or the ethic and rationalistic view on the
doctrine of God that is penetrating into the concept of Christian
humanism of Renaissance.

This issue is connected with the Renaissance culture, the period,
which appeared to be the new epoch in the philosophy of European
thought. The key feature of this period became the study of a human

personality, taking into consideration real circumstances of our life,
claiming the independence of a person, ontological, moral and ethical
argumentation of the study about human beings. A specific modification
of Aristotle’s, neoplaton`s study, stoic and epicure`s philosophical

thought takes place, being the dominant one humanistic or
anthropological trend.
T. More (1478 – 1536) is famous for his work “About the best

social order of a state and a new island Utopia”, where he formed the
project of ideal society, following the example of Platonic work “A
state”. It should be mentioned that T. More is the supporter of Christian
humanism, and all his ideas concerning social justice and equity trace

back to early Christianity, but according to him, not God, but a mature

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